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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Ralph,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Your name is Inigo Montoya, and I am prepared to die. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Here is your paragraph in full:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>“As to why neither
appears in the New Testament, I suspect that the expectation of the imminent
Second Coming of Christ was so fully in the minds many of the early Christians
that they had no time to think of either beer or cats. They didn't even have
time to think about sex<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>(1 Corinthians
7:29-31).”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Looking back on it, I can
see that those who didn’t have time to think of beer or cats were only
“many,” (although not your later interpretation as
“some.”) However, look at how ambiguous the second statement is; it
seems to be an independent statement asserted to support the initial claim. It
is most naturally read as the following: many didn’t drink beer; after all,
Christians didn’t even have time to think about sex according to
Paul’s comments about sex in 1 Corinthians. This would imply that you
were referring to, generally speaking, all Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>So I can’t say that
my initial read of this was some sort of gross misrepresentation. The average
reader would need the follow up information that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Corinth</st1:City></st1:place> and the Christians there were
actually a rowdy sexual and drinking bunch of people, according to external and
internal textual evidence. I don’t take the responses to this personally,
since I know that my revealed relation to various ministries of <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:PersonName></st1:place>
do not permit me to make a true assertion about the bible :-)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>As for the text in
question, this is a very beautiful but difficult text; Paul does not clearly
reference a ‘second coming’ here, but “this present [or
impending] distress” (7:26). Paul is more concerned with defending his
own love for them, his authority, getting worship in better order, the primacy
of love and unity in the church, and serious discipline issues than he is about
an immanent happening. His eschatology in this book seems different than you
suggest. For example, Paul says that Jesus “must reign until he has put
all enemies under his feet,” which would include liberal biblical scholarship;
so he couldn’t have come that early on.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>As a side note, if you
are a local biblical scholar, I need help on OT ‘berith’ and new
testament ‘diatheke.’ This is where some of my work is currently
focused, and other than Leithart it is hard to find any interest around here
since Joan would call me a heretic for rejecting the teaching of the
Westminister Confession of Faith. I’m working on a debate with <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place> on this matter
right now.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Thanks<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Michael Metzler <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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